Xbox Live Numbers On The Rise With 64 Million Monthly Active Users

Xbox Live Numbers On The Rise With 64 Million Monthly Active Users

Although Microsoft reported a steep decline in gaming hardware sales (19 percent), there's been a bigger interest in Xbox Live.

Xbox Live is once again growing in popularity with recent figures up to 64 million monthly active users, Microsoft announced in its second-quarter earnings call on Wednesday. This number represents an 8 percent growth over last year.

Microsoft reported $32.5 billion in revenue, with $8.4 billion of that being net income. The company’s gaming division also grew by 8 percent.

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This news is surprising as the life cycle of the Xbox One comes to an end, and rumors of the next generation consoles coming in 2020. Though as the monthly active users rose, gaming hardware sales fell by 19 percent.

Microsoft stopped publicizing console sales back in 2014, so it’s hard to work out exactly how that 19 percent figures into their sales.

The drop in console sales can be attributed to things like Microsoft’s Play Anywhere, which promises players the option to play some Xbox-exclusives on their Windows PCs, or the relatively high price point of the Xbox One X.

Not to mention people are starting to save their money for those next-gen consoles. With the prices of recent iPhones, who knows what prices to expect.

News that Xbox Live is doing well comes as a surprise to some people, who may have assumed that PlayStation Network was going to dominate the world. With the PS4’s excellent exclusive lineup, it’s hard to imagine that they haven’t already. Xbox Live monthly active users haven’t peaked north of 60 million in some time.

Back in 2009, Xbox Live saw a similar jump from 17 million active users to 20 million. After all, that was a big year for Microsoft with Xbox 360 sales surpassing 30 million units since its launch. Many of us remember the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 days; what a time to be alive.

Let’s see if Activision decides to publish a Modern Warfare 2 remaster. It will be interesting to see how that group’s nostalgia drives console and monthly subscription sales.